Great. You kind of answered my question earlier by saying Bulgaria because I wanted to ask where you shot, but this house is incredible. Where the interiors actually of that house, or did you shoot those separately? Or how did that all come together?
I’m happy to report that most people who see this film can’t find a seam where the exterior and interior of the house look like they were two different places. Because a lot of work went into that, and the production designer, Antonello Rubino who lives in Sofia, Bulgaria, where we shot this, he built the entire set. Every interior you see is something that he constructed from whole cloth, which is something for our budget you could have only done in Bulgaria on the Millennium Film lot. I was nervous because you’re editing the film and it’s all blue screens. Anytime someone looks out a window or out the door, they come in and out of a place, it’s blue screen.
I was just like, oh my God, will this ever look right? This is awful. But when you’re there, they call it hosing down the location. They take a million photos of the exterior at night, day, sunrise, sunset. Then later, they have all the materials they’ll need from different angles to insert precisely what it would look like looking out the windows there. I was a bit nervous it wasn’t going to work out, but luckily it did.
No, it did because I wouldn’t have even guessed that there were two different things, but I figured just logically that maybe they weren’t, so that’s why I asked the question.
I should have asked this before, but I love Billy Zane in this movie. He definitely changes from the first time we see him, and the next, and it’s just an interesting character. I wanted to know, did you always have Billy in mind for that role, or did it just happen that way?
I think it was on the Unforgiven DVD bonus supplementary materials, where Gene Hackman says, “I hate it when someone comes up to me and says, here. Here’s the script, I wrote the main character for you because I don’t want to play a character that you wrote with my face in your head. I want to play a character that’s limitless, that somebody else wrote for somebody different. I want to play real people, not who you think I should play.” He was so mad.
I was just like, okay, note to self. Don’t think of people when you write, and so here, I thought of the characters completely with nobody in mind, all of them, which always bites me in the a*s later when all the producers ask who do you see for the German soldier? Who do you see for the lead? I always seem to forget about this inevitable question. Oops. I have nothing. But for Billy Zane, I mean it was always tough to cast that specific role because there’s, without giving much away, there’s a gravitas.
“…I mean it was always tough to cast that specific role because there’s, without giving much away, there’s a gravitas.”
We needed a certain feeling at one point in the film and something askew from that initial point at a different part of the film, and we wanted somebody that would be familiar, but not necessarily throw you off the first time you saw him. I’ve had people throughout this press junket where some people told me, “yeah, I thought it was him, and then I thought, no, it couldn’t have been him. It must be somebody who just looked a lot like him.” Since he doesn’t really speak English, you just kind of dismiss it until something else happens.
I think he may have been the very last person cast. It was always a tricky role, and we were just going through the list, and then when we got him, it was like, great. Yay, we’re done. That was the final piece of the puzzle.
My last question and it’s kind of a nerdy question, but I can’t help myself. There are a few genres present here in the film, but I’m wondering specifically what your favorite war movie is? If you can name one, and what your favorite haunted house movie is?
The Shining instantly for the haunted house. I mean, there are shots in this movie that are allusions to The Shining as best as we could. Considering the different geography, no question about it. I saw that when I was 11, and it changed my life. As far as war movies, you know what? I really liked Tigerland. It’s more of a character piece than a war movie. I almost think I have to give it to the TV series Band of Brothers and The Pacific, if you have the time to watch ten episodes of HBO greatness and Playtone, which is the Tom Hanks label. Boy, I think those are my favorite because they really let you explore more character growth with their long time span and epic nature. Then if I had to pick one, though, it’d be Apocalypse Now. And again, it’s not exactly like your typical war movie, but-
It is the best for Vietnam, I think. I mean, at least it sums up “THE HORROR” of it.
I can never seem to get enough of that movie. I’ve seen every possible iteration, and yeah, it’s just every version is better than the last. I love it.
That’s true. Well, thank you so much. I’m glad that I got to talk to you for this little bit of time and congratulations on this movie. It’s fantastic, I loved it.
Thanks so much, Lorry. I mean, that just makes my day.
